Wink smart hubs goes offline after update, releases fix

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Wink Hub, a smart home hub to link common appliances like light, thermostat, garage door and others, stopped working after an update was released as a security measure. Quirky immediately promised to get it back online in a few days.

The issue affected Wink hubs from 12:40PM to 11PM on Saturday, though the company stated that a “majority” of them were able to recover and reconnect. Quirky has stopped the sales of the device, until the issue is fixed. Earlier, Quirky announced that it would send a prepaid shipping label to send the device back to the company, but the company has now found a solution for the problem.

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“We are incredibly sorry for the inconvenience,” said Quirky’s email.

The company is sending out a $50 gift card for wink.com, to the affected users. However, the gift card will be valid for 48 hours, and cannot be redeemed for cash. Users can grab some accessories for the existing Smart hub with the added credit. The company later found that the expired certificate was causing the problem. Some users have fixed the problem by pushing out the update, and they reported it on Facebook. Quirky founder Ben Kaufman confirms that a fix is being tested with a small number of users and is expected to mail the steps to other users soon.

Users will have to temporarily change the DNS settings on the router, which will connect the Hub to a specialized server. The update will be downloaded to fix the problem. However, it can still be a problem for users who might have installed the hub in a remote location or a vacation home. Most users with limited technical skills can fix the hub, by following the instructions here.